Chinese Battery Maker CATL Expects Hungarian Production to Start Next Year

Chinese battery maker CATL’s new plant in Hungary is expected to begin production by early next year, its general manager for Europe said Sunday, as the company expands in the region, Rachel More reported for Reuters.

The new site will dwarf CATL’s existing European battery facility in Germany’s Thuringia state. (Photo: CATL Facebook) 

CATL invested 7.3 billion euros ($8.55 billion) in the plant in the eastern city of Debrecen, aiming to scale up battery production for automakers such as BMW, Stellantis, and Volkswagen.

The new site will dwarf CATL’s existing European battery facility in Germany’s Thuringia state, with a planned annual capacity of 100 gigawatt-hours and a workforce of 9,000.

CATL’s Europe general manager, Matt Shen, told Reuters the goal is to start production in Debrecen “at the end of this year or beginning of the next year, so the next four, five months.”